Child Sacrifice in Ancient Israel

Some ancient Israelites did sacrifice their children. The Hebrew Bible's repeated condemnations of the rite only make sense if it was really happening, and this careful study takes that uncomfortable fact as its starting point. Drawing on biblical texts, archaeology and inscriptions, it argues that there was not one Israelite practice of child sacrifice but at least three, each with its own history, purpose and function.

The second strand of the argument turns to the condemnations themselves. Nearly every tradition in the Hebrew Bible rejects the rites as abominable to Yahweh, yet the writers disagree, sometimes sharply, about why Yahweh condemned them and how they arose in the first place. The result is a sober, evidence-led piece of scholarship for students of the Old Testament, ancient religion and the Near East who want the hard questions handled with rigour rather than sensation.